LIMIT POT RX: OTTAWA

MDs Told To Keep Dose Low

OTTAWA -- Health Canada has been contacting doctors who prescribe
medical marijuana for their government-approved patients, advising
them to keep the dosages low.

Some users say that not only violates doctor-patient confidentiality,
it's also wrong for bureaucrats to make judgments about the medical
needs of people they've never seen.

"A person's medication should be between him and his doctor," said
Tony Adams, 60, a medical marijuana user in Victoria. "There shouldn't
be some bureaucrat in Ottawa that's never met me.

Official Approval Needed

"Everybody has different needs for medications."

Adams, a licensed user who's been smoking seven grams of marijuana
daily, recently applied to Health Canada to increase the dose to 10
grams, with his doctor's authorization. Official approval from Ottawa
is needed so that Adams can legally grow the necessary number of
marijuana plants.

But a program official in Ottawa challenged Adams' doctor in a
telephone call, saying most patients need no more than five grams.
Adams, who has severe arthritis and degenerative disc disease, later
received a new licence for just five grams a day.

"I'm just really pissed off about the whole situation. ... I need to
get to the bottom of this."

Similarly, Alison Myrden in Burlington, Ont., says her doctor was
challenged by Health Canada bureaucrats about her 20- to 28-gram daily
dose.

"They asked to lower it more than once, and my doctor and I both refused,"
said Myrden, 43, who uses marijuana for multiple sclerosis and another
painful condition. Her message to Health Canada: "Back off -- leave our
doctors alone."

The department's campaign to keep doses to five grams or less includes
postings on its website.

Health Canada also sent a letter recently to the Canadian Medical
Association advising doctors about appropriate amounts.

A spokesman for the department said dosage decisions are always left
to doctors.

As of last month, 1,774 patients were licensed to use medical
marijuana, about a thousand of whom grow it themselves. Another 166
have someone else grow it for them under licence, and 538 are approved
to order government-certified marijuana grown in Flin Flon, Man., by a
firm under contract with the department.